Nov 13th, 2012

The Incomparable Diamond is another African diamond, one of the largest ever found in the world – 890 carat!

A young girl encountered it in 1984 a pile of rubble collected from old mine dumps of the nearby MIBA Diamond Mine, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The rubble was sorted out during the recovery process because it was considered too bulky to contain diamonds.

This massive diamond was considered to be cut into the world’s largest gem, but finally, the size was reduced to 407.5 carats for the sake of having fewer internal flaws; nevertheless, it was the 3rd largest cut diamond after the Cullinan and Golden Jubilee Diamonds.

The stone was cut by a team led by Marvin Samuels, who co-owned the stone along with Donald Zale of Zales Jewellers and Louis Glick. In November 1984 the finished stones were put on display: a single golden diamond of 407.48 carat in a ‘triolette’ shape, and fourteen additional gems.

Notably, the satellite stones cut from the Incomparable varied greatly in color, from near-colorless to rich yellow-brown. The largest of these stones still bears the name ‘Incomparable Diamond’, and was graded by the Gemological Institute of America internally flawless in 1988.